Navigating Career Choices: Balancing Calling and Financial Responsibility
July 24, 2025
How should a Christian work? The classic go-to verses to answer that question are Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” That means we are to work diligently, showing up on time and giving our all. We are to see Jesus as our employer.
But where should a Christian work? It may be relatively simple to eliminate certain industries or employers—those that produce products or provide services that are contrary to biblical teaching or that are known for their unethical business practices. But which ones should we pursue? And is this a question of “calling” or something more pragmatic?
Through prayer, discernment, and wise, Godly counsel, some people do feel led to a particular industry or employer. For many others, theologian Dorothy Sayers’ conclusion in her famous essay on work provides a reassuring level of freedom in their career choices. She simply said, “Christian work is good work done well.” That opens up a wide range of industries and employers.
Essential guideposts
If you don’t feel a strong leading toward a particular career pursuit, several verses of Scripture provide helpful, broad direction in deciding what type of work to pursue.
A requirement to provide
Every Christian has a responsibility to provide for their family. As we read in 1 Timothy 5:8, “Whoever does to provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
That would seem to eliminate the option of waiting and waiting for God’s revelation and a job opportunity that perfectly aligns with one’s sense of calling. We may need to take a job that doesn’t feel like a perfect fit, if it enables us to provide for our family. That, unto itself, is a God-honoring approach to work.
Work as a venue to introduce others to God
In the Message paraphrase of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 12:8 reads, “Each person is given something to do that shows who God is.” In other words, through our work, we can give people a glimpse of God. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.”
In doing our work with unusual excellence and enthusiasm, we will stand out and perhaps draw questions about our motives. When an arborist showed up at a man’s home to see why several trees were dying, he did his work with such excellence, passion, and friendliness that it prompted the homeowner to ask the arborist why he worked the way he did. That gave the arborist an opportunity to talk about his faith—that he saw his job as being about serving God and loving his customers.
Pursuing the good of your community
Consider these words from Jeremiah 29:7, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Our time here on earth is described as a time of exile; we are “strangers” (Hebrews 11:13), with heaven our true and eternal home. While we are here, this verse teaches us, we are to be a blessing to our community, to seek its good. Our work is a natural venue to live out this teaching.
For some people, the nature of their work brings benefits to their community. Perhaps they are police officers or firefighters, doctors, or home builders. No matter what you do for a living, your work provides regular opportunities to benefit your community—to encourage supervisors, co-workers, customers, and vendors. And the income you receive from your work gives you opportunities to help provide for the people in your community who work at businesses you patronize. Seen through these lenses, any “good” work is a calling. When you provide for your family by doing good work “as working for the Lord,” your work becomes a venue for fulfilling the two greatest commands—to love God and love others (Matthew 22:36-40).
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Matt Bell is the author of Trusted: Preparing Your Kids for a Lifetime of God-Honoring Money Management. He speaks at churches and conferences throughout the country and writes the MattAboutMoney blog.
This article should not be considered legal, tax, or financial advice. You may wish to consult a tax or financial advisor about your individual financial situation.
